It’s all about relationships

Or so says international student recruiter Cort Johnson, and Studio-e agrees.

In his most recent blog post, Johnson discusses the importance of relationships in recruiting, though his message could be applied to almost every field.

Johnson asked a fellow recruiter how she became so effective at recruiting international students, and she cited her “ability to connect with prospective students and their families” as the number-one reason for her success.

He writes, “to get students to apply and ultimately attend her school she never regurgitated her university’s talking points and facts but rather took time to get to know each prospective student on a personal level … [in doing so] the student would begin to ask unprompted questions about her school, leading to a submitted application and many times a deposit!”

Johnson encourages fellow recruiters to engage in the conversations that students are currently having on social networks, such as Facebok and Twitter. “Today’s prospective students are more personal than ever,” he writes, “and we need to embrace this fact.”

“If we want to attract the top talent to our schools we need to respond to their comments and questions, we need to comment on their content, we need to get conversations started, we need to share our lives and create personal connections.”